For the one in five Americans who still live in rural areas, remote work isn’t a luxury, it’s a lifeline. And more and more of these would-be workers will be at risk unless we can summon the collective will to make remote job opportunities available to them.
Now here’s the good news: A majority in rural regions are ready to seize these opportunities—provided we find innovative ways to give them a chance.
That’s the upshot of fresh research that Generation, the non-profit I run, recently commissioned. We went into the field knowing that midcareer and older workers everywhere – though they are a growing portion of the labor force – are more likely to struggle with long-term unemployment. And knowing also that long-term, persistent poverty is far more prevalent in rural counties than urban counties.
To learn more about this especially challenged subset, we partnered with YouGov to survey more than 500 individuals aged 45 or older who reside in rural areas across 17 states that make up the Appalachia and Delta regions. Almost half were currently unemployed.
We started by confirming what we suspected: Many of these folks are hurting. A house repair, a health emergency, car trouble: such all-too-likely unbudgeted costs are disasters waiting to happen. Sixty-one percent of the individuals aged 45+ whom we surveyed say they would not be able to cover an unexpected expense of $1,000. In fact, 37% do not have enough money to cover their daily needs, and another 32% are just making ends meet. Only one in four say they can meet their needs and save for the future. Unemployment, when it strikes, is a deep hole to fall into. And 45% of the unemployed in our survey have been out of work for more than two years.
